While President Obama considers deploying more troops to Afghanistan, Secretary of State Clinton discusses the war, impending election results in Afghanistan and the next meeting of the United Nations in a Newsmaker Interview with NewsHour correspondent Margaret Warner.
In the interview, Secretary Clinton responds to top U.S. commander in Afghanistan General Stanley McChrystal recent assessment of the war, in which he said that the situation could become dire without the help of more troops.
The White House is currently debating whether to send more troops and resources to the region, which has been deteriorating over the past several months
Quotes
"The real question, however, is not so much who gets elected, but what do they do once they are elected? How do they build the confidence of their own people that they're a government that cares about the Afghan people, that they are delivering services, that they are combating corruption, improving governance, all of that, and that's what we have to work on." - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
"If Afghanistan were taken over by the Taliban, I can't tell you how fast al-Qaida would be back in Afghanistan. So we have to be really clear-eyed about this, and what I'm very grateful for is that we're not coming in with any ideological, you know, presuppositions. We're not coming in wedded to the past." - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
"I think you've seen that this president acts and thinks very deliberatively which I believe is a preferable way to proceed when you're talking about the lives of young American men and women, the lives of the young soldiers of our allies who are part of the international security force, when you're talking about lives of Afghans. You want to be sure that the approach that we are pursuing maximizes success." - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Warm Up Questions
1. Where is Afghanistan? Why is the U.S. fighting in Afghanistan?
2. As Secretary of State, what does Hillary Clinton do? Can you name past secretaries of state?
Discussion Questions
1. In the United States, what is the relationship between diplomacy and the military? How are they separate? How do they work together?
2. As both commander-in-chief and chief diplomat, where does the president fit in to that dynamic?
3. What is a counter-insurgency strategy? How does it differ from other types of warfare?
4. How do you think that the U.S military should proceed in Iraq and Afghanistan? What would you do if you were President or Secretary of State?
Additional Resources
